Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești

Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești (January 1, 1868 – December 14, 1946) was a Romanian short story writer and politician. The scion of a minor aristocratic family from Târgoviște, he studied law and, as a young man, drew close to the Junimea circle and its patron Titu Maiorescu. He began publishing fiction as an adolescent, and put out his first book of stories in 1903; his work centered on the fading provincial milieu dominated by old class structures. Meanwhile, after a break with Maiorescu, he drew toward Viața Românească and Garabet Ibrăileanu. In 1907, Brătescu-Voinești entered the Romanian parliament, where he would serve for over three decades while his written output declined. In his later years, he became an outspoken anti-Semite and fascist, a stance that, following his country's defeat in World War II, gave way to anti-communism near the end of his life.

Born in Târgoviște, his parents were Alexandru Brătescu, a low-ranking boyar and the son of a pitar (bread supplier), and Alexandrina, daughter of Ion Voinescu, a major in the Wallachian Revolution of 1848. He was the second of four children. His childhood took place amidst the traditional environment of old Târgoviște and at the Brătești estate. He attended primary school in his native town from 1875 to 1879, then at the Cocorăscu boarding school and finally at Saint Sava High School in Bucharest from 1879 to 1883. One theory, unsupported by documentary evidence, is that his literary debut occurred with a poem in Târgoviște's Armonia magazine in 1883; a likelier scenario is that it took place in România magazine in 1887, when he published the short story "Dolores" with the help of Alexandru Vlahuță. He attended the medical faculty of Bucharest University from 1889 to 1890, but switched to law. At the same time, he audited the logic and history of philosophy course taught by Titu Maiorescu, entered Bucharest's Junimea circle, and in 1890 began contributing to its Convorbiri Literare. His father died in 1890, and Maiorescu took on the role of father figure in the young man's life. After graduating in 1892, he was appointed a judge through his mentor's intervention, serving at Bucharest, Pitești, Craiova and Târgoviște. Living in his native town for nearly two decades after arriving there in 1896, he practiced as a lawyer after leaving the bench. Brătescu-Voinești found life there rather constraining: he had to sell the Brătești property at a loss, and lived on the irregular income earned from lawyer's fees. He lacked a literary discussion circle, largely editing his own work, and would eventually enter politics out of boredom.

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